1. Technical Field
An aspect of the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus with an image forming unit for forming an image on a recording medium. More specifically, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus including a pair of resin frames to support at least a part of the image forming unit at laterally opposite sides.
2. Related Art
An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording medium in an electro-photographic method may often have a pair of metal frames (e.g., steel plates), which support an image forming unit at laterally opposite sides (e.g., right and left sides). The metal frames may often increase manufacturing cost and weight of the image forming apparatus. Therefore, the metal frames may be replaced with resin frames. However, the resin frames may not provide substantial rigidity to hold the image forming unit but may be more deformable to external force than the metal frames.
In order to reinforce the less rigid resin frame, steel-made coupling members to support the resin frames may be provided to bridge between the resin frames. For example, the image forming apparatus may have a pair of resin frames to hold the image forming unit and three steel-made flat bars bridged between the resin frames to support the resin frames together from inside.